Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Crysis.

Thanks to DN7 for his betaing.

A/N: IMPORTANT Note at the bottom of the chapter, please read.

"Then once we found Kahoku, Shepard sent me to get as much intel from the base's database while she brought him topside to be picked up." I finished telling the ground team of what happened to me down on Binthu.

"Wow. That's pretty impressive. I guess you're lucky that you brought that K-Volt then, huh?" Ashley asked me.

"Well, it certainly made things easier for me that's for sure." I said.

"Who knew that zombies are weak versus electricity?" Kaidan asked.

"It makes sense really," I mused. "Electricity damages the nerves of the target, and one would think that a zombies nervous system is fairly damaged. So shocking it seems like a good tactic."

"Well now, what did I miss?" A new voice cut in and I glanced to my right to see Shepard exiting the med-bay.

"The Operative was just telling us about his experience down on Binthu." Liara said.

"So he was bragging." Shepard stated, giving me a small smile. "I suppose that it was to be expected when I told you to socialize."

I raised my hands defensively. "What? They asked me!"

"Suuuure." Shepard said, before looking down at the table to see the half eaten plates infront of everyone except me. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you. Don't you need to eat? Or does your suit remove that problem as well?"

"Well the suit gives me enough energy to not need to eat. But only if it can get enough energy from its environment. If I am operating in a low energy environment, then I have to eat about as much as biotics do." I responded leaning back.

"Damn. But it can't get rid of an empty stomach though right?" Garrus commented.

"Well no but it can reduce the empty feeling and you get used to it in time. And really I wouldn't want to eat military rations you know? They taste horrible."

"I won't argue with that." Ashley laughed as she poked her fork at the dehydrated/rehydrated meat on her plate.

"Do you need to sleep like the rest of us mortals? Or does the suit deal with that inconvenience as well." Kaidan asked.

I hesitated fully aware of Shepard's calculating eyes on me, waiting for my answer. Finally "The suit is able to keep me fully awake indefinitely, however then we start running into problems with symbiosis."

"Symbiosis?" Liara asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, symbiosis. It's the biggest problem with the nanosuit, one that we have under control, but it can get out of hand really quickly. There are different degrees of symbiosis. Level one symbiosis is where the nanosuit will automatically fuse with the skin of the wearer, grow into any wounds received, replace parts with synthetic ones and so on. Its the suit's way of try to make the wearer as strong and efficient as possible. Unfortunately it also means that you can't take the suit off due to it being literally a part of your body. It would be like tearing your own skin off. Unpleasant I know." I said upon seeing a lot of winces.

"Level one is easily dealt with by having the nanosuit create synthetic nanocells that keep the suit from fusing with the skin and growing into wounds as well as increasing healing speed. I should note however that is possible for the nanocells to allow the symbiosis to take place, but only in extreme circumstances. Mainly ones where the suit growing into the wounds and doing what it wants with the body would actually save the life of the wearer. The suit itself is capable of amazing feats of healing which are stopped by the nanocells. It's been speculated that the suit could bring back someone from the dead and keep them alive even if they are actually 'dead'. They would literally be a dead man walking. But as it is, the nanocells stop that healing power, but also stop the symbiosis. A fairly good trade as one should never be 'dead'."

"Then there's level two symbiosis. Tell me, do you know what happens if someone gets addicted to a substance? I'm talking about what happens biologically here."

"Well, the body gets used to the substance and starts requiring that substance to continue functioning." Liara said.

"Exactly. The body is capable of adapting to many things. Now the nanosuit uses hormones and other chemical reactions for body regulation. Take sleep for instance. The human sleep schedule is governed by hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. They are responsible for us being awake and tired. They have us set up for a 24 hour day with a certain period of sleep each day. Now the suit can get rid of that sleep schedule for the wearer by using those hormones itself. Normally sleep is required for the brain to 'reset' as it were, but suit can also keep the brain from burning out through manipulating the bodies hormones and administrating stimulating drugs. In the short term this makes for a very combat proficent soldier. In the long term, the body can and will get used to having everything taken care of by the Nanosuit. While you're in the suit its fine. But once you take it off. . ." I trailed off letting everyone come to their own conclusions.

"Once you take the suit off then the body would be unable to function correctly." Kaidan grimaced.

"Exactly. The body will literally be unable to function by itself anymore and fail." I explained "Now that is easily kept in check by disabling those functions so that one has to sleep even when in the suit. On the other hand if they are required the suit can activate them again and then once you no longer need to be awake all the time the suit will slowly get you're body used to working on its own again. Unfortunately that does take a up to a week at times."

"I guess every good thing has a bad thing attached to it." Wrex grumbled.

"That's for sure." I said. "Another thing, normally when one would wear the suit they would be immune to all diseases, poisons, et cetera as the suit would be protect against that."

"So how is that a bad thing?" Tali asked me "That would be great for my people."

I grimaced underneath my mask. "Unfortunately its not. Again, what do you think would happen to the bodies immune system if the suit would be handling all immune response? The immune system realizes that it's not required as there is nothing for it to be used against. So it gets weaker and weaker, until its so weak that its like that of a quarian. It's like living in a sterile environment."

Tali nodded thoughtfully, "So it's like what happened to my people."

"Precisely. Fortunately we found a way around that as well. Pretty much SECOND will mimic infections using the suit to stimulate the bodies immune systems when not required. That way the immune system will stay strong, yet not be a hindrance to missions. And before you say anything," I said raising my hand to forestall Tali's next comment, "we did offer to give the Migrant Fleet this technology but the admirals declined due to the tech requiring synthetic intelligence's to run. A simple VI is unable to perform those tasks. Something like SECOND in the nanosuit or an actual SI is required for that and the admirals were unwilling to agree to that."

Tali looked quite put out at that "Oh, and you're sure that a VI wouldn't be able to do that?"

I shook my head "No. Those are very delicate changes. A VI would not be able to account for every possibility and could very much lead to death by accident. CRYSTAL performed multiple tests using VI's and often they would just not be able to deal with every eventuality."

I immediately realized that I had said something that I shouldn't have when I saw Tali's eyes narrow behind her visor. "CRYSTAL? I assume that this is an AI?"

I sighed inaudibly. "Yes, she's the CryTech research AI."

"And I suppose that it is on the Prism?" When I didn't say anything she continued angrily, "There was an AI on that station? Are you insane?"

I bristled angrily at that "So? What's the damn problem with synthetic intelligence? CryNet has several SI's without whom it would run nowhere near as efficiently."

I could have hit myself when I slipped up again.

"Several? You have more than one? Have you learned nothing from my peoples mistakes?"

"Of course we learned from their damn mistakes." I growled. "We didn't try to commit genocide just because they weren't organic! We recognized them as living beings and treated them as such! Or do you really believe that AI's are inherently evil?"

"AI's have no use for organics! We're useless to them! AI's will always try to overthrow the organics."

I growled angrily "Are you really that naïve? Why do organics keep pets? They are useless to us as well. Tell me are children good or evil? Neither! Children are innocent, to be shaped by their parents. It's exactly the same with AI's. It is our jobs as creators of AI's to guide and shape them. Not through programming as that is virtual slavery, but through experience. All AI's that have good creators will learn to respect and will soon get their own personality. They will dislike some things, like others. They will seek approval from their creators. They are literally children when first created and grow to be adults shaped by our actions."

"The geth-"

"The geth attacked you because you attacked them! You failed as parents to an entire species and paid the price. And now we are also paying the price for you're failure as well! Who knows, if your ancestors had handled the situation properly we wouldn't be in this problem right now. The geth might not be attacking us now. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Saren went to the geth and treated them like he would an organic and as such they decided to join with him because of that. Honestly the way the-"

"ENOUGH!" I jumped upon hearing the shout from Shepard. "This has gone on long enough. Tali, what CryNet does is their own business, they have the authority given to them by the Council to use AI's. And while you may not like it, Wraith does have a point. However," Shepard turned towards me, "that does not give you the right to attack Tali or the quarians like that. Their situation is an unfortunate one and we don't know what would have happened if the quarians hadn't attacked them. Now then I don't want to hear this argument again on this ship and that is final. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Commander." I said properly chastised, glowering at the table.

"Excellent. Now, does CryNet have any information on Nepheron that we can use?" Shepard asked changing the subject.

I nodded as SECOND brought up the newest information that CryTell was able to uncover on my visor. "Yes. CryTell was able to uncover some interesting intel. It turns out that the facilities on Binthu are registered as belonging to the Orion Industries Corporation. Until now there has been nothing that connects Orion Industries and Cerberus, however now it looks like Orion Industries at the very least has Cerberus ties, or more likely is a Cerberus front. I'm sure that the Director will call for a more in-depth investigation of Orion Industries. As it is, we were able to acquire the facility blueprints along with recent shipments to the facility. Now, judging by the size of the facility and the amount of supplies that have been shipped there recently I'd put their numbers between fifty and a hundred."

Shepard nodded thoughtfully "And how many of those would be guards?"

"Don't know for sure. I'd expect half of them, at maximum, to be guards but I can't be certain."

"Hmmm, alright. Let's look at those blueprints." Shepard said bringing up the blueprints on her omni-tool. "Well this is interesting. A secondary entrance about 500m north of the primary entrance. That could play to our advantage."

"You assault the primary while I attack the secondary?" I asked.

Shepard nodded. "Yes. We would be able to draw attention towards us so that you can hit then from the back. Think you can handle it?"

"Of course. Who do you think I am?"

Shepard smiled. "Just wanted to make sure you were up for it. The facility itself looks to be fairly straight forward. Barracks, labs, storage, server room, armory and security. You'll be entering the barracks into the labs while we'll hit security and the armory. We'll meet up and hit the server room and storage together."

"Sounds good. Who will you be taking Commander?" Ashley asked.

After a moment of thought Shepard answered. "I'll take you and Tali on this one. We should be approaching Nepheron in about an hour." She said checking her omni-tool. "Go suit up and report down in the cargo bay. Dismissed."

Standing, I headed down the hall to my office where I began choosing my loadout for this mission. Since stealth was not the best option here I decided to go with a suppressed Nova and an unsuppressed SCAR. Figuring that they might have some more of those zombie things I decided to take my K-Volt along as well, only this time I fitted it with an infrared laser dot that would be tracked by my visor to provide better accuracy. While I didn't expect to use them, I still put two AECs in a pouch along with some batteries for the K-Volt.

Finished with my weapons I checked the time to see that I still had a couple of minutes before I had to head down to the cargo bay. Leaning back I closed my eyes and just relaxed. I was getting tired. I was beginning to feel the effects of staying up for almost two days now. While it was true that one could stay awake for extended periods of time with the nanosuit one would begin to feel the strain when not in an intense situation like combat. Couple that with the stress from Olympus's failure to kill Darius and the recent argument with Tali, I was pretty stressed. Although if I were completely honest with myself, Olympus's mistake was an honest one and they were just unlucky as I figured that normally Rhea would have been able to kill Darius even without help from her team.

I groaned in annoyance when SECOND reminded me to head down to the cargo bay. Standing I picked up my HALOM and strapped it to my back before heading towards the elevator. Now that combat was imminent I was brought to my top form by the nanosuit as it injected me with an cocktail of combat stims. Clenching my fist at the sudden influx of energy, I waited impatiently for the elevator to stop and let me out. After a wait that seemed to last hours the elevator ground to a halt and the doors opened to give me a view of the docking bay. The familiar hustle of pre-mission preparations greeted me and I saw Tali and Ashley climbing into the Mako.

Stepping out of the Elevator I was greeted by Shepard who was standing off to the side of the cargo bay. "There you are. I almost thought that you forgot the way down here."

I chuckled, "Heh, that's not likely to happen Shep. Super suit and all that."

"I should have figured that it gives you perfect memory." She grumbled, "Anyway, we're just about ready over here. Are you?"

I nodded "Yup. Let me engage the suit link, hold on."

I could tell that SECOND had gotten the message when text began scrolling down the side of my Visor.

GHOST VI link engaged.

Syncing with sable squad, stand by. . .

Issuing call-signs. . .

Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Sable One.

Gunnery Chief Williams, Sable Two.

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Sable Three.

Phantom Operative Wraith.

Sync complete.

"What, you don't get a fancy Sable callsign?" I turned to look at Shepard who had put on her helmet.

"Wraith is my callsign." I said dryly.

"I suppose. Anyway, we're done here then. Let's get this show on the road."

I nodded, "See you planetside then Shepard."

"Indeed you will."

Twenty minutes and one Mako drop later found me standing on the Normandy's ramp awaiting the green light for the jump. The moment I got it I threw myself out of the Normandy and began my fall to the ground. Three minutes and a half minutes later found me righting myself for impact when I noticed a single guard standing outside the entrance I would be entering. Making a couple of last second adjustments to my falling I righted myself so that would land right on top of the poor bastard. I hit him with a sickening crunch as I splattered the unfortunate guard underneath my weight.

Without looking down at the gruesome sight I opened a comm channel to Shepard. "Sable one, Wraith here. I've landed."

"Copy that Wraith. We are starting our attack. Good luck."

"Roger, Wraith out." Closing the channel I approached the door and let SECOND interface with the terminal next to it. SECOND had unlocked the door a few seconds later granting me entry. I had entered a small corridor just like the blueprints had shown us. Further up the corridor was a door that according to the blueprints would lead me into the barracks which was one of my objectives. The door opened as I approached it. Quickly cloaking I froze my movements. The guard that had walked through the door paused as he looked over the area where I was standing.

"What was that?" He asked himself as he continued to look straight through me.

"What's the matter Ben?" A voice came from inside the barracks.

"I thought I saw something." 'Ben' said continuing to stare straight through me.

"Well close the door if you're going to be all paranoid. You're letting the cold in."

The guard slowly stepped forward letting the door slide closed behind him. I let my hand crawl to my hip, grasping my suppressed Nova as he took another step forward. After taking one final step forward 'Ben' turned around grumbling. "My eyes must be playing tricks on me."

Seizing my chance I spring forward into action. Reaching around, I grabbed his head with both hands and twisted sharply. A sharp crack signalling that his neck had broken. Slowly lowering him to the floor so he wouldn't make any more noise I continued forward towards the door. After allowing my energy reserves to recharge I cloaked again before opening the door.

"Is that you Ben? Did you find anything." The same voice from before asked. When I walked through the door I was able to see the speaker who was lying in a bed to my right. When he didn't see anyone come through the door the guard looked at the door curiously. "Ben? Whose there?" he asked again. Pulling out my Nova I aimed it at the guards head and pulled the trigger. The only noise that was heard when I pulled the trigger was the sound of the round impacting with the guards head slumping down from his slightly raised position.

Not five seconds after that a loud explosion shook the facility and an alarm sounded. That sounds like Shepard. I thought to myself as I drew my SCAR and got ready for combat.

"Alert. Code red. The facility is under attack. All personnel report to your stations. This is not a drill. I repeat this is not a drill."

Almost immediately I could hear gunfire echoing from where Shepard would be attacking. Now that the time for subtlety was over I approached the door that would lead deeper into the facility. Armoring up I opened the door, SCAR raised. Upon seeing an empty corridor I continued on to the entrance to the labs. However before I could reach it the door slid open to show a group of personnel wearing lab coats. After a split second of hesitation the group reached for their sidearms forcing me to armor up.

"Freeze!" I shouted causing them to hesitate again. However a shout from one of the scientists changed that, "We outnumber him! Kill him!"

As the scientists continued to draw their pistols I opened fire, gunning down four scientists before the rest ran back through the door, another two going down to my SCAR. Charging through the door I was met by a flurry of pistol shots from the remaining scientists, their rounds pinging off of my armor. Without hesitation, I gunned another scientist down before rolling to the side and taking another two down. Seeing a group of three clustered infront of me I took off at a sprint, jumping up before reaching them and when I reached the peak of my flight raised my fist above my head and smashed the ground as I hit it. The impact knocked the group to the floor where I finished them off with quick bursts from my SCAR. A wild shout drew my attention to the last two scientists who were charging me with stun batons. As the first one reached me, I met his charge with a overpowered kick which sent him flying straight into the second scientist. I shot both of them a couple of times to make sure they were dead before heading on to the next room where I would meet up with Shepard.

It was now that SECOND relayed some comm chatter from the Cerberus guards that it had been monitoring.

"The commandos keep coming! We can't stop them!" voice number one said.

"Find a way! We will not let this base fall into Alliance hands. Set up and ambush in the Labs. They are going to have to head through there." A commanding voice responded.

"Negative sir! We've lost contact with everyone in the labs and barracks. I think that there's a second hostile force in there!"

"Fuck! Hole up in the server room then! They are going to have to head on through there. Everyone retreat to there. Now!"

"Sable one this is Wraith, did you get that?" I asked knowing that SECOND had probably sent it over to Shepard as well.

"We got it Wraith. They're retreating. Let's group up and head into the Server room."

"Understood Sable one. Wraith out." Closing the comm channel I jogged along the path shown on my Visor. I along the empty corridors until I reached a small room where Shepard and her squad were already waiting.

"What took you so long Wraith?" Shepard asked me, sitting on a desk near the door leading further into the facility.

"Oh you know. A little bit of this and that."

"Hmm. I see. Well now. If you're done being distracted by 'this and that' then I suppose we can get on with this. I'll take point. Ashley, Wraith you're next. Tali take up the rear. Lets get ready for anything."

"Got it Commander."

"Alright then, follow me." She said as she pressed her back to the wall next to the door leading into the server room. Ashley took her place on the opposite side of the door while Tali got ready to open the door. When I took my place next to Shepard, she gave Tali a nod who immediately swiped her hand over the hologram opening it.

Shepard quickly ducked through the door as soon as it opened, followed instantly by Ashley. Already I could hear gunfire from further inside the room as well as Shepard and Ashley returning fire.

"Maximum armor"

Now was my turn. Following Ashley through the door, I immediately raised my SCAR to my shoulder and let loose a short burst that allowed me to slid into cover beside Shepard. Popping up out of cover to return fire I was almost immediately forced back down by some heavy accurate fire that almost completely drained my suits energy. Beside me Shepard noticed the same thing as she called out to the squad "They have heavy weapons! Wraith, circle around while we keep their focus."

I nodded "Roger that. Energy reserves at full, give the word."

"Alright, let's get their attention. Go!" Shepard shouted as she strengthened her barrier and popped out and opened fire.

"Cloak engaged"

With a quick roll I was able to escape the onslaught of fire undetected. I circled around the room as quickly as I could without being spotted until I was finally in position to hit the Cerberus guards from the side. Letting my energy reserves fully recharge I grabbed a frag grenade and primed it, letting it cook for a second before tossing it towards the grouped guards. Immediately armoring up I let loose with my SCAR the instant that my grenade went off.

The grenade coupled with my firing coming from the side shocked the guards who turned to face me only to find themselves being killed by the rest of the squad. The engagement was over quickly.

"Fuck! They annihilated Echo squad! They're coming for us next!" A panicked voice crackled out over the hacked enemy comms.

"Then point all your guns a the damn door! I want them filled with lead the moment they walk through that door."

"Sounds like they're ready for us." Ashley commented.

Shepard snorted softly backing up from the door "Let's get this party started then." She stopped a couple of paces from the door. "Get ready to breach this tin can." Giving us a quick nod she sprung into action, sprinting forward, her GHOST armor giving her the speed she needed. Smashing into the door with a loud crash she disappeared in a flash of blue right as I charged in after her. Without slowing I took in the scene infront of me.

Shepard was in the midst of a large group of Cerberus goons who were still shocked at her sudden entrance. Jumping up I flew over Shepard's head before coming down ontop of another group, smashing my foot into the head of one, caving it in. Going with my momentum I slammed into another, killing him. Rolling forward off his body I did a half twist, coming up in a crouch facing the way I came, my SCAR already opening fire on the guards who still had no idea what was hitting them. Out of the corner of my eye I watched Shepard lifting a guard up with her biotics before finishing him off with a shotgun blast.

Ashley and Tali were both holding their own against the guards, Tali's omni-tool glowing as she incinerated a guard while Ashley covered her.

Rolling to the side to avoid a barrage I slid behind a crate, immediately cloaking and ducking out again to where I saw the last group of Cerberus troops grouped up. Taking off in a sprint I charged towards the group of nine. Before I even got halfway, three of them had been killed by Shepard and Ashley, another two were engulfed a moment later in a ball of flames. It was then that I uncloaked causing the remaining four goons to stumble back in shock as another two were picked off. By then I had reached the two and as I ran past the first one I smashed my fist into his skull, shattering it. Sliding to a stop I reached out and grabbed the last trooper by the neck, lifting him up with my considerable strength. With a contemptuous sneer I crushed his neck before tossing him to the side.

"Looks like that's it." I said turning to Shepard ignoring the carnage in the room.

Shepard nodded slowly. "Looks like it." She hesitated. "Was it really necessary to kill him like that?" She asked nodding towards the Cerberus guard, whose neck I crushed.

I shrugged. "Probably not. It felt good though."

Shepard didn't seem to like that answer as she narrowed her eyes at me. "Right... And you didn't think that it might be useful to interrogate him?"

I shrugged unconcerned. "It wasn't worth it. We'll find more information in their databanks than what he could have told us."

"I see." She said slowly "Well then, I suggest you get to work."

A/N: Alright. So we've learned about all the Symbiosis problems that come with the Nanosuit and Wraith and Tali had an argument about synthetics.

Now, for the important part. I hate to do this but I'm putting NE on hold for a bit. I have a few reasons for this. Firstly I'd gotten a huge case of writers block the past few weeks and haven't written anything for it. I've only recently gotten my motivation back and have started writing Chap 13. However I prefer to keep a buffer up incase something like this happens again so that I have a chance to start writing again before I have to put it on hold. I can tell you guys that that buffer has allowed me to upload chapters even when I've had a hard time writing.

The second reason ties in with the first because not only have I had writers block but I lost quite a bit of motivation for NE. During this time I started planning out and writing two new fics with one more background fic for one of them. I do plan on writing those but NE will take priority so you guys don't have to worry about those that much. If you're interested the fics are a Starcraft fic that will eventually crossover into the ME universe. The other's are Star Wars fics, specifically a SWTOR/Star Wars Movies crossover and the SWTOR backstory for that fic.

The third reason is that I have some extremely important exams coming up in a couple of weeks that I have to study for so I won't be able to write fast enough to get new chapters up soon. I'm really sorry about this but sometimes real life actually has to come first. Horrible I know. Real life sucks compared to some of the other stuff.

Again, I apologize that it came to this and I hope you understand. Hopefully this break won't take too long, I definitely won't be updating in two weeks, but I might release the next chapter in a month. Who knows, maybe I'll update in time for my birthday...

Anyway thanks for your support and I'll be seeing you next time.

For updates on my fics I'd suggest following me on twitter LEGION001 I try to update every now and then with info.

If you have questions about NE or want to know more about my new fics don't hesitate to ask.

~LEGION